Filtering content in a social networking service

Abstract

A social networking service presents information about the social network using multiple feeds in a user interface and provides mechanisms for filtering the content. A content feed includes the most recent content generated by the user's connections, and a highlights feed displays content based on importance and relevance. A user may add content to the social networking service through a composer interface. A user may also filter either or both of the content feed and the highlights feed using a filtering interface, which allows selective filtering of the feeds using one or more different types of filters, including as filtering by the source of the content, friends or networks, and/or content type.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method comprising:
 receiving content items from authoring users of a social networking service; 
 receiving, from the authoring users of the social networking service, user profile attributes comprising descriptive information about each authoring user; 
 receiving, from a viewing user of the social networking service, user profile attributes comprising descriptive information about the viewing user; 
 automatically creating, by a processor, groups relevant to the viewing user according to one or more rules, the groups comprising the viewing user and one or more of the authoring users of the social networking service, the one or more authoring users having one or more user profile attributes in common with one or more profile attributes of the viewing user; 
 providing, to the viewing user, a user interface comprising:
 a content feed that includes a subset of the content items, and 
 one or more selectable filters generated by the social networking service for the viewing user, each filter specifying one or more of the automatically created groups of users; 
 
 receiving, from the viewing user, a selection of a filter of the one or more selectable filters, the selected filter associated with at least one group of users; and 
 responsive to the selection of the filter, sending for presentation to the viewing user in the user interface an updated subset of content items for the content feed, the updated subset including content items received only from the one or more authoring users in the at least one group of users associated with the selected filter. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein providing the user interface comprises:
 selecting the subset of content items in the content feed according to affinity scores determined between the viewing user and the content items; and 
 sending the selected subset of content items for display in the content feed. 
 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 2 , further comprising determining an order for the selected subset of content items based at least in part on the determined affinity scores, the provided user interface organizing the selected subset of content items in the determined order. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 2 , wherein the affinity scores include an affinity score reflecting a strength of interest between the viewing user and one of the content items, the strength of interest determined based at least in part on a previous interaction by the viewing user with a social networking object associated with the one of the content items. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 4 , wherein the social networking object is an authoring user of the social networking service that posted the one of the content items. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 4 , wherein the social networking service object is a content item having a same type as the one of the content items. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 2 , wherein the affinity scores are reduced according to a decay factor that reduces affinity scores according to an age of the content item. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more selectable filters further comprise a selectable filter that identifies a type of content from the received content items. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 8 , wherein
 the user interface comprises a composer interface that enables the viewing user to upload a plurality of types of content items to the social networking service, and 
 in response to selection of a filter specifying a type of content, the composer interface updates to facilitate uploading of the type of content specified by the selected filter. 
 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 8 , wherein the type of content identified by the selectable filter comprises at least one of photos, videos, text updates, hyperlinks, or content from an application within the social networking service. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the user profile attributes comprise attributes selected from a group consisting of geographic location, employer, job type, age, music preferences, and interests. 
     
     
       12. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed, cause a processor to perform steps comprising:
 receiving content items from authoring users of a social networking service; 
 receiving, from the authoring users of the social networking service, user profile attributes comprising descriptive information about each authoring user; 
 receiving, from a viewing user of the social networking service, user profile attributes comprising descriptive information about the viewing user; 
 automatically creating, by a processor, groups relevant to the viewing user according to one or more rules, the groups comprising the viewing user and one or more of the authoring users of the social networking service, the one or more authoring users having one or more user profile attributes in common with one or more profile attributes of the viewing user; 
 providing, to the viewing user, a user interface comprising:
 a content feed that includes a subset of the content items, and 
 one or more selectable filters generated by the social networking service for the viewing user, each filter specifying one or more of the automatically created groups of users; 
 
 receiving, from the viewing user, a selection of a filter of the one or more selectable filters, the selected filter associated with at least one group of users; and 
 responsive to the selection of the filter, sending for presentation to the viewing user in the user interface an updated subset of content items for the content feed, the updated subset including content items received only from the one or more authoring users in the at least one group of users associated with the selected filter. 
 
     
     
       13. The computer program product of  claim 12 , wherein providing the user interface comprises:
 selecting the subset of content items in the content feed according to affinity scores determined between the viewing user and the content items; and 
 sending the selected subset of content items for display in the content feed. 
 
     
     
       14. The computer program product of  claim 13 , further comprising determining an order for the selected subset of content items based at least in part on the determined affinity scores, the provided user interface organizing the selected subset of content items in the determined order. 
     
     
       15. The computer program product of  claim 13 , wherein the affinity scores include an affinity score reflecting a strength of interest between the viewing user and one of the content items, the strength of interest determined based at least in part on a previous interaction by the viewing user with a social networking object associated with the one of the content items. 
     
     
       16. The computer program product of  claim 12 , wherein the one or more selectable filters further comprise a selectable filter that identifies a type of content from the received content items. 
     
     
       17. The computer program product of  claim 16 , wherein
 the user interface comprises a composer interface that enables the viewing user to upload a plurality of types of content items content items to the social networking service, and 
 in response to selection of a filter specifying a type of content, the composer interface updates to facilitate uploading of the type of content specified by the selected filter. 
 
     
     
       18. A system comprising:
 a processor; and 
 a computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed, cause the processor to perform steps comprising: 
 receiving content items from authoring users of a social networking service; 
 receiving, from the authoring users of the social networking service, user profile attributes comprising descriptive information about each authoring user; 
 receiving, from a viewing user of the social networking service, user profile attributes comprising descriptive information about the viewing user; 
 automatically creating, by a processor, groups relevant to the viewing user according to one or more rules, the groups comprising the viewing user and one or more of the authoring users of the social networking service, the one or more authoring users having one or more user profile attributes in common with one or more profile attributes of the viewing user; 
 providing, to the viewing user, a user interface comprising:
 a content feed that includes a subset of the content items, and 
 one or more selectable filters generated by the social networking service for the viewing user, each filter specifying one or more of the automatically created groups of users; 
 
 receiving, from the viewing user, a selection of a filter of the one or more selectable filters, the selected filter associated with at least one group of users; and 
 responsive to the selection of the filter, sending for presentation to the viewing user in the user interface an updated subset of content items for the content feed, the updated subset including content items received only from the one or more authoring users in the at least one group of users associated with the selected filter. 
 
     
     
       19. The system of  claim 18 , wherein providing the user interface comprises:
 selecting the subset of content items in the content feed according to affinity scores determined between the viewing user and the content items; and 
 sending the selected subset of content items for display in the content feed. 
 
     
     
       20. The system of  claim 18 , wherein,
 the one or more selectable filters further comprise a selectable filter that identifies a type of content from the received content items, 
 the user interface comprises a composer interface that enables the viewing user to upload a plurality of types of content items content items to the social networking service, and 
 in response to selection of a filter specifying a type of content, the composer interface updates to facilitate uploading of the type of content specified by the selected filter.